Finding righteous currents in turbulent times

Archive for the tag “punk rock”

The American punk-rock group The Bloodhound Gang have been scattered with eggs and tomatoes, beaten and banned from performing in Russia after their base player shoved the country’s flag down his trousers during a gig in Ukraine.

Boston cops are so eager to bust DIY indie-rock shows that they won’t simply wait to respond to noise complaints that might arise. Instead they’re going online posing as punk rockers to bust bands before they perform. It’s part of a citywide effort to crack down on basement and warehouse shows spurred by a recently passed nuisance control ordinance. H/T Reason.TV

Bands like Green Day might market themselves as punk rock rebels, but in fact, they are hypocrites who have sold out to the Establishment by plugging bloated, Big Government policies. The punkers might sneer and ridicule the corporations, but they no longer can claim to be anti-establishment when they have embraced socialism and a creeping bureaucracy, argues Alfonzo Rachel in this edition of ZoNation. H/T PJTV

James Panero, American cultural critic and managing editor of The New Criterion, discusses how American punk rock has profoundly influenced protest movements around the world. In an interview with Kennedy from Reason.TV, Panero cites Russia’s Pussy Riot and Chinese dissident artist Ai WeiWei as having embraced the idioms of punk as well as its defiant anti-authoritarian streak. He believes their art is “having a real effect” as the “conscience of reform” against the authoritarian governments under which they live.

A Russian judge today found three members of the punk band Pussy Riot guilty on charges of hooliganism for their February concert at a Moscow cathedral protesting the rule of President Vladimir Putin. In the concert, an act of guerrilla theater, the trio called upon the Virgin Mary to drive Putin away from Russia.

The band members each received sentences of two years imprisonment, commencing from the time of their arrest in March. The specific charges, “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred,” carried stiff sentences of up to seven years, but prosecutors were recommending that the band members be jailed for three years, and Putin himself had advocated leniency in their case. Judge Marina Syrova read from the lengthy verdict for about three hours before announcing the sentencing around 6 pm Friday, Moscow time.

“We accept this as our ethical misdemeanor, but an ethical misdemeanor should not be a cause of criminal punishment,” band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova said. Meanwhile, outside the courtroom, arrests occurred as supporters and opponents of the band gathered. Those detained included chess master Garry Kasparov, a vehement Putin critic. Pussy Riot vigils also were staged in New York, London, Paris and elsewhere.

Here’s a World Edition report on the trial from Taiwan’s Next Media Animation.

And here’s an interview with the three other members of the band — Sparrow, Squirrel and Balaclava — who remain at large and have continued to elude Russian authorities.

Meanwhile, a Femen protester in Kiev uses a chainsaw to cut down a cross in support of Pussy Riot. The cross was near Independence Square in this Ukraine city.